Bowling ball



NO 4-, 1958 c w JEROME 2,859,039

BOWLING BALL Filed Dec. 19. 1955 INVENT Chm-72 ltd Jiio EZZL 5/ United States Chester W. Jerome,-Detroit, Mich. 7 Application December 19, 1955, Serial No. 553,948

2 Claims. (Cl. 273-63) This invention relates to balls.

An object is to provide a bowling ball wherein the thumb and/or finger openings therein are modified by insetting within certain surface areas of said openings friction gripping material so shaped and so positioned and inset therein as to give the user of the ball maximum control over the delivery and travel of the ball.

Another object is the provision of a bowling ball with resilient compressible friction inserts inset within the surface areas of the thumb and/or. finger openings so as to be engaged by the tips of the thumb and/or fingers of the bowler and which inserts are so formed and so inset as to give the bowler efiicient control over the movement of the ball.

A further object is the provision of an improved bowling ball of the character described wherein the friction of engagement of the thumb of the user within the thumb opening is sufficient to give the necessary control over the ball but is not so great but that the ball will be released .by the thumb of the user before it is released by the fingers of the user.

A meritorious feature of the improvement in bowling balls herein described is that the friction inserts employed in the thumb and/ or finger openings are in the form of relatively narrow inserts extending in a circumferential direction with respect to the opening and are preferably so inset within the wall of the opening as to project above that inner surface of the opening within which they are disposed. The inserts are so disposed within an opening that the extent of projection of the inserts inwardly of the opening above the surface thereof may be adjusted.

Another meritorious feature is that a plurality of such inserts may be provided in any opening, which inserts are disposed in spaced apart relationship lengthwise of the opening and with the inserts extending circumferentially of the opening for a determined arcuate portion of the circumference thereof whereby the inserts form a series of friction-like ribs spaced between the mouth of the opening and the bottom thereof and preferably projecting inwardly of the opening beyond the surface of the wall thereof.

Other objects, advantages, and meritorious features ,of

' provements in bowling the invention will more fully appear from the following 1 description, claims, and accompanying drawing wherein:

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of a bowling ball provided with the usual thumb and/ or finger openings;

Fig. 2 is a cross sectional view taken on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a cross sectional view taken on the line 3--3 of Fig. 2; and

Fig. 4 is a cross sectional view taken on the line 4--4 of Fig. 3.

In the drawings a bowling ball is indicated by the numeral 10. Such ball may be formed of the usual material and is generally of the conventional construction except as modified by the introduction of my invention thereinto. It is provided with the usual thumb- 2 a ,receiving'opening 12 and the two usual finger-receiving .openings 14, Theseopenings are disposed as is conventional practice. a In accordance with the teaching of my invention, ;I propose to"provide eachthumb and/ or finger opening with one or more inserts of friction material inset within recesses formed in the surface of the opening, Suchinserts may be formed of rubber or other-suitable compressible resilient friction material. In the drawings such an insert is indicated by the numeral 16 and it is shown in Figs. 2, 3, and 4 as inset within a recess or arcuate groove 18 formed within a wall surface of the opening.

The inserts are inset within that wall surface of an opening which is adapted to be engaged by the tip of the thumb and/or finger received within the opening. The recesses 18 are formed within the wall surfaces to receive arcuate segments which form the inserts. These segments are of such a size that when urged into recesses formed to receive them, they normally retain their place therein without being glued or otherwise secured within the recess though obviously they may be secured in place in such a manner if it is thought desirable.

Each opening is shown in the drawing as provided with a plurality of inserts inset within its wall surface. These inserts 16 are illustrated as being in the form of relatively narrow strips. Each insert has a width that is substantially less than half of its length. When three inserts are used in an opening as is shown in the drawing, it will be seen that the space lengthwise of an opening between two inserts is of equal or greater width than the width of an insert. It will also be seen that, as illustrated in Fig. 3, the insert projects slightly inwardly radially of the opening beyond the surface of the wall of the opening. The insert forms what might be termed a friction rib projecting slightly inwardly of the wall surface of the opening and functions to give the user of the ball a good frictional grip within the opening. The inserts are shown as extending for determined arcuate distances circumferentially of the openings. The inserts in any one opening are disposed in substantial parallelism spaced apart and spaced between the mouth of the opening and the bottom thereof.

In bowling it is desired that the figures retain their grip on the ball longer than the thumb and for this reason the inserts disposed within the thumb opening may be so inset within its wall as to project a less distance inwardly beyond the wall than is the case with the inserts in the finger openings. It will also be noted that the inserts do not extend to the mouth of the opening but are spaced inwardly therefrom so that at the instant a ball is released, the tips of the thumb and/or fingers are engaged with the unmodified surface of the opening wall. Heretofore it has been proposed to provide friction inserts within the thumb and/ or finger openings as appears in my Patent #2,469,268, May 3, 1949, but in such patent the inserts extend lengthwise of the openings and from the bottom to the mouth thereof and in certain cases it was found that when this system was applied to the thumb opening in a ball, there was a tendency for the thumb to frictionally retain its grip on the wall of the opening for too long a period of time. The breaking up of the surface areaof the wall of the opening engaged by the tips of the thumb and/ or fingers of the user into a series of spaced apart friction ribs and modified wall portions gives good control over the ball to the user and minimizes the possibility of too much frictional grip.

What I claim is:

1. A bowling ball having a digit receiving opening provided with a plurality of separate insert strips of compressible friction material inset within the wall of the opening in spaced-apart parallelism and extending circumferentially of the opening over that portion thereof Patented Nov. 4, 1958 adapted to he engaged by the face of the users digit for iieptli ii'f the opening, said plurality of strips being s p ed 5 apart axially er the opening by surface areas of the niaterial of which the bowling ball is formed; and that 's'ti'ija iivhi'c'li is nearest tothe mouth of the opening Being spaced from such irioiith By a distance suflicint that "the digit of intense: received Within the opening is ehga gea With th'eiin'modifi'ed surface of the opening wall at the instant the ball is released.

2. A bowling ball as defined in claim 1 characterized in that certain of said strips project radially inwardly of the opening beyond the surface of its wall but to a distance less than the width of the strip itself.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 950,838 Cavanagh Mar. 1, 1910 10 2,273,199 Hilton et a1. Feb. 17, 1942 2,708,578 Mitchell May 17, 1955 

